[Magic Reserves: 43/44 → 42/44]

...

[Magic Reserves: 42/44 → 41/44]

Shutting off my supply of Magic to the Personal Flame Magic Circle, I estimated that the Skill used one point from my Magic Reserves to function per minute. However, that estimation was based on the Skill operating at its current maximum output rate. If I toned down the strength of the fire, say, to cook or light up a dark environment, I could probably get ten times the mileage.

Unfortunately, Personal Flame as a Skill had very limited combat uses, so I moved on to learn the only Fire Magic I could at the moment.

[Pending Skills:

Name: Fireball

Description: A basic Magical Skill most Fire-type Mages and Monsters learn very early on in their lives. To learn it, you must fulfill the following prerequisites:

1) Reach Rank E (Magic Reserves >= 20)

Condition: Satisfied

2) Learn the Skill Red Personal Flame

Condition: Satisfied

3) Use the Principles of Conversion to alter Red Personal Flames's Magic Characters

Condition: Unmet; to meet the condition, use your understanding of the Principles of Conversion to derive the characters needed to stabilize and project fire over a long distance.]

I looked at the only unmet condition for the creation of the Fireball Skill, then looked at it again. Slowly, the look of doubt in my face intensified until I could no longer hold back the question, 'It couldn't be that easy could it?'

Even as I shook my head with incredulity, my Magic began to gather on my chest. Another Tier 0 Magic Circle stabilized before I knew it, but it took a couple seconds before I put my absurd idea to the test.

Hoping my line of thinking was the correct route and this wasn't the kind of mistake that could literally blow up in my face, I added four more characters after creating the Personal Flame Magic Circle. Now the apple-sized Magic Circle looked almost completely out of writing space as it held the word, "Fireball."

After powering it up like I did to create my Personal Flames, my face darkened at the sight of the foot-tall ball of red fire that shot out of the Magic Circle. The ball of flames moved rather slow, probably less than thirty miles per hour, but since I was still in a forest, at that speed it almost instantly crashed into a tree.

Against expectations, however, the tree didn't spontaneously erupt into flames or develop a cratering wound. There wasn't even much sound as the fireball hit the tree and merely washed its bark with flames. The leftover flames weaving around the side of the tree, reaching about fifty meters away from me before dissipating.

[Magic Reserves: 41/44 → 36/44]

[Condition Fulfilled: New Skill "Fireball Lvl 1" Created!]

[Title Earned: Fire Magic Novice]

After dismissing the Status notifications, I looked over all the other Skills I wanted to learn and a conniving grin couldn't help but find its way on my little eaglet face.

With my current understanding of this world's Magic System, it would at most take me ten minutes to create all Pending Learnable Skills my Common Eagle Bloodline allowed. Alas, while that may have been useful at the moment, for the sake of further specialization and my evolutionary progression down the line, I couldn't indulge.

After Foundational Fire Magic and its two subsidiary Magical Skills were created, I acquired Foundational Healing and Strengthening Magic as initially planned. Foundational Strengthening Magic gave me access to the Magical Skills "Reinforce" and "Empower" which respectively increase my Defense and Endurance, and Strength and Speed respectively. Foundational Healing Magic granted me two versions of the same Magical Skill, "Self Heal" and "Heal." The only difference between them being that Heal could be cast on a ranged target.

[Conditions Fulfilled: New Skills "Reinforce Lvl 1," "Empower Lvl 1," "Self Heal," and "Heal" Created!]

[Titles Earned: Strengthening Magic Novice, Healing Magic Novice]

Double-Edged Dive Bomb, the last Skill I wanted to learn, however, couldn't be learned as easily as I did with Magic. The suicidal technique required practice with live targets and I had already spent enough time in the Littleroot Forest, anyway. So, I stretched for a bit, happy with how easy it was to learn Magical Skills as I heard resounding cracks from my stiff joints, before I shot toward the skies.

Up until the point that I reached a comfortable altitude of several thousand feet, I felt confident and satisfied, but then I realized I'd forgotten something extremely important. How was I supposed to tell which direction was which? I knew that my destination was to the east of the Littleroot Forest, but from my current position, all I could see was a sea of green.

Katherine told me to go to the east of Littleroot Forest, but it's not like I had a compass or anything similar. So… Should I rely on the sun? I mean, this planet was certainly similar enough to earth.

Seeing as I literally had no other options, I followed through with using the sun as my compass. Of course, since it was around noon, the sun was almost directly above. Shaking my head in annoyance for this inconvenience, I used my literal bird's eye view to look for a relatively clear patch of forest before flying over.

Landing on a tree near the open patch where I could conduct an experiment, I used my talons to claim a long branch. I carried the branch over to the open patch and by carefully gauging my jaw, or lower mandible now that I was an eaglet, I shoved the branch into the ground such that it was standing straight up.

Marking the tip of the branch's shadow with a "W" for West, I killed a bit of time by practicing my Magical Skills before returning a couple minutes later and drawing a line marking shadow's new point with an "E" for East. Since my destination was purely eastward, I stopped the process of making my crude compass and restarted my journey to the Black Swamp.

Hoping my work checked out, I returned to the skies, continuing onward with practicing my Magical Skills by casing "Empower." The Skill revitalized my body and augmented my Speed and Strength by a meager two points, but that would surely change after I increased my proficiency and became stronger. In any case, I would both reach my destination faster while I got in a bit of training along the way.

[Flight Lvl 1 → 2

Summary: Increases aerodynamics to increase maximum speed and efficiency.

Magic Reserves: 29/44 → 15/45

Magic Potency: 5 → 10]

It took about an hour before I saw the eerily clear line dividing the Littleroot Forest from the Black Swamp, but I was too happy seeing that my navigation skills worked out to react.

I slowly burned through altitude as I let my extended wings glide me to scour for prey. Upon coming down to a couple hundred feet above the woody trees, I let my Acute Vision work its magic and within minutes, I found a solitary beaver. Not pushing my luck after discovering that the Black Swap had a thriving ecosystem, where I could easily find groups of animals, I picked a one-on-one fight to test the waters.

[Name: Water Weaving Beaver

Estimated Rank: D

Description: Possessing a coat of black fur similar to most animals that reside in the Black Swamp, the Water Weaving Beaver is known for its aquatic supremacy as a speedster. Though most of their combat abilities are below their rank, against their Water Magic it is best to approach with caution.]

Since I was already up in the air, it was as good a time as any to try practicing to acquire the Dive Bomb Skill. Thus, by angling myself toward the Beaver after positioning myself nearly right above it, I shot toward the ground with enough speed to seriously hurt myself if I missed or made a mistake. Of course, with Healing Magic in my repertoire, I wasn't overly worried.

Slice!

After cleanly decapitating the Beaver, I swear my body entered a state of autonomy as I was lost thinking of what exactly I had underestimated. Was it the power of a Dive Bomb attack? Or could it have been the Beaver's fragile body? Either way, the result was it dying before it could even react. While I had been thinking about the matter, my body had instinctively hooked its talons on my prey's carcass and started flying away with it.

When I came back to my senses, I found a large enough tree to settle on and dropped the Beaver's body before I dug into my meal. While I ate, I thought it amusing how much more troublesome a couple of E Rank Tapirs were than this supposed fully-fledged D Rank Beaver. Then again, I did assassinate without it ever realizing and the Tapirs were in the complete opposite of that situation.

Soon enough, I finished my meal and smiled. Apparently, eating restored a decent chunk of my Magic Reserves so unlike Health, I wouldn't have to wait hours before being able to practice if it ever ran out. After kicking the bones that were left over from my meal into the swamp below, I flew off again.

Yesterday's goal may have been to reach Level 5 and evolve, but today's goal after learning magic had changed to getting as much experience as I possibly could. I had no idea when Katherine might summon me again, but it was pretty much guaranteed that it would probably be for a fight, unlike my first summoning. If not to surprise her, I still had to get stronger in accordance with Munich's contract.

Though at the end of the day, wasn't Munich's Contract just a formality for my selfish wish? Leaving my old life for this chance to become another universe's God…